Tom fell in love with Alice the moment he saw her. He realises that being with her will not be easy, but she is a force of nature, a burst of sunlight in his otherwise ordinary world.

Some people might look at Alice and think she has everything, but Alice knows she is not like other women. Her life is complicated, unpredictable, difficult. Alice does not like pity. All she wants to do, has ever wanted to do, is sing.

Alice has been told not to follow her dreams. So has Tom. But when fate has already dealt a tough hand, it’s time to stop listening to everyone else and only follow their own hearts.

Just a warning this review is going to get a little personal.

I had heard about this book around twitter but I didn’t know much about the actual story. When I attended the Spring Blogger Evening put on by Books and The City I was lucky enough to listen to an extract read by the author herself. I was shocked to discover that the main character had Cystic Fibrosis (CF). Many of you won’t have heard of this incurable disease, unfortunately this is not the case for me.

If you have read my about me page then you will know that I have 5 brothers. What is doesn’t say is that 2 of them suffer from CF. I know the routine of Alice’s life all too well from watching my brothers struggle with their daily medications and treatments. I had seen a few reviews and they had all mentioned the tears but more than that, this book is personal to me. While I knew it would it would be tough, ever since I heard the extract I couldn’t stop thinking about this book. I couldn’t concentrate on anything else because knew I needed to read this story.

Alice, based on Alice Martineau a real life CF sufferer, is truly inspirational. If anyone can say that they lived their life in the moment then it is this girl. She knew what she wanted in her life and she was determined to get it. Nothing and no one was going to stop her especially her CF.

At the beginning of this book Alice meets Tom. There is an instant connection between them but Tom doesn’t know that Alice has CF. Like most people, Tom’s never heard of CF before. The love between these two is the type of love everyone dreams of. It’s the love that films are made of. It’s raw it’s passionate and above all else it’s real.

There are some truly heartbreaking moments in this story and I am not ashamed to say I cried, I cried a lot and there was a certain moment that really hit me. I knew it was coming and it felt all to real, recently the same words were spoken by a friend of one of my brothers and as heart breaking as it is at least he isn’t hurting anymore.

I hope that this book not only helps to raise awareness of this truly terribly disease but also to inspire us all to live our lives to the fullest. To be that one.

I am going to wrap this up now before I cry any more but I am going to end with this quote which when I read I knew I had to put in here somewhere. “Someone has to make it…so why can’t that someone be me?” This quote sums up Alice Martineau.

About Alice Peterson

At the age of eighteen Alice had been awarded a tennis scholarship to America when she experienced pain in her right hand. It was rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and she hasn’t picked up a tennis racket since, a sadness that shall always be with her. The theme of disability features in her fiction, but there is nothing gloomy about Alice or her work. Rather this gives her fiction the added dimension of true poignancy.